The Sign of Ouroboros
by gameloverx
Summary: A new prophecy has been proclaimed. Carter and Sadie find themselves in more trouble than they thought they could have met. A new evil is rising, and the only way to defeat it is to bring back the Egyptian gods. Sadly, the only way to do that is to find The Sign, but will the risk be worth it? Or is the Ouroboros a worse threat than any of our heroes had faced before?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! I've actually had this idea for a long time. The crossovers I've read before didn't satisfy me in the least, so I thought I'd give it a go. This is actually something that I would imagine Rick would write if he actually decided to do a crossover, so naturally, I want to keep this as cannon as possible. Enjoy and review.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot.**

**P.S. I need a beta reader, like seriously. **

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Welcome to Brooklyn, Home of the Slaughtering Giant Rats.

Hi, Sadie Kane here! If you're listening to this, then you've probably heard of the multiple disasters that took place around the globe. The huge mess that occurred in Central Park and that big explosion in London were kind of our fault, sorry about that. Trust me, it could have been a whole lot worse. Still, I think we owe you an explanation about what happened.

[ Carter says that I'm not taking the situation seriously enough. Well, I think that it's better to give the audience a lighthearted start than scare the bloody hell out of 'em.]

You could say that it all started when a giant rat destroyed Central Park.

My mood wasn't very good that day, due to the fact that Carter and I had a fight. Again. These situations we getting more often than I liked, but I just couldn't help it. Plus, this fight turned out much more personal than the others.

It was a Sunday morning, eleven AM to be exact. Sunday mornings I usually spent in my room, curled up on my bed, listening to music and drinking Ribena in gallons at a time. Training at Brooklyn House started at one, so I had plenty of time to lazy around and do nothing.

This was going to be that kind of morning, if Carter hadn't ruined everything.

I was just preparing to have my weekly do-nothing hours, and was just on my way to the kitchen to get a huge tub of ice cream from the freezer, when I overheard a strange conversation coming from the living room. Curiosity getting the best of me, I poked my head through the doorway, the tub of ice cream still in my hands. The conversation was apparently between my brother Carter and his girlfriend Zia. The two were standing around the coffee table, arguing.

"You can't leave just like that, Carter! What about the trainees?" Zia cried out furiously.

Carter shook his head and pressed his fingers to his temples, probably trying to clear away a headache. "Do you think I _want _to go? You think I'm not tired of all this First Nome nonsense?"

"Then why _are _you going?" Zia countered.

"Amos told me to."

" '_Amos told me to',"_ Zia mimicked, showing the quotes with her fingers. "Then tell him that you're busy! For gods' sake, you're not a child."

"But he said that it was important!" my brother exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air.

That was my cue to make myself known. I stepped through the doorway and folded my arms, glaring angrily at Carter. "What's important? Where are you planning to go?"

He jumped in surprise and turned to face me, stuttering awkwardly. "S-Sadie! What are you...um...doing here?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I live here. Now, you didn't answer my question."

"Amos contacted him earlier this morning. Called him up for another meeting." Zia replied instead.

I glared at my brother. "Another one? This is like the third time this month! Doesn't Amos ever get tired or something?"

Carter bit his lip. "He _is _tired of them, and so am I. Look, I'm sorry, but Amos said that this one was very important and I'll only be gone for a week and-"

"A WEEK?" I practically screeched. Taking a deep breath and counting to ten, I tried again, in a threateningly calm voice that tended to scare the _ba _out of misbehaving younger trainees. "A week. You do realize what Thursday is, right?" Carter blinked, completely clueless. "Thursday is March 17th."

Another blink, before realization spread across his face. "Oh! Of course! I..." Once again, he was at a loss of words. No 'sorry, Sadie, for forgetting' or 'I can't believe I forgot! I'm such a jerk'. Just an 'Oh!'

This wasn't the first time that he completely ignored my birthday. The same thing happened last year. Granted, we were kind of facing the end of the world back then, so I forgave him. Now, though, the situation was pretty calm. True, some problems started to arise in the House of Life that my uncle Amos discussed frequently with my brother, but other than that, it was peaceful. He should have at least remembered, and I'm not even talking about a present, just an acknowledgment. But, of course, even _that _was apparently too much to ask for. [ And _yes, _I'm still mad at you, Carter.]

Carter averted his gaze to the floor, too shameful to make eye contact with me. Seeing that this particular topic was not getting us anywhere, I quickly changed the subject. "So when you were going to tell me that you were leaving?" He swallowed, still staring at the floor silently.

"You weren't going to, were you?" Zia finally decided to join our little talk. She shook her head, as if not believing what she herself was saying.

Carter peeled his eyes off the floor and said: "I'm sorry."

This was the last straw. I just couldn't take it anymore, I was sick. My stomach was churning with rage, the tub of ice cream that I was still holding shaking in my hands. Carter was barely around now. He was supposed to be the older brother, the one who takes care of me, as cheesy and horrible as _t__hat_ sounded. Instead, he forgot that I was even there. And yes, I felt selfish and bratty thinking that, but it just felt so bloody unfair. So, I decided to use my most practiced method of dealing with annoying older brothers: I gave him the cold shoulder.

"Fine, whatever!" I spat, shooting him a what I considered to be a deadly glare. "Go ahead! I won't stop you. In fact, it'll be a whole lot better without you pestering me anyway!" I turned around and stalked out of the room, feeling Zia's concerned stare and Carter's shocked one in the back of my neck.

My brother's voice echoed down the hall as he ran after me. "Wait! Sadie! Look, I'm sorry, okay?" I stormed past the numerous trainees, not paying any attention to their 'what's wrong, Sadie?' and 'are you okay?'. _A little to late for an apology, brother dear, _I thought, trying to ignore the light stinging in my eyes or the giant lump that had formed in my throat.

I ran out into the street, feeling like I needed some fresh air to clear my head. Picking a random direction, I started jogging down the road. My thoughts bounced around in my head like a bouncy ball. Carter's frantic apologies had already died down, but it was then that I started thinking if I was too harsh on him. The poor boy's hurt look was still stuck in my mind, the way he reacted, maybe I shouldn't have given him such a hard time...after all, this was _Carter _we're talking about, the _softie _of the family. He was the one that tended to take people's reactions too seriously.

Then I realized: why should I care? If he was so afraid of hurting my feelings, why then why did he forget to tell me that he was leaving? I shouldn't care! I'm not the one who's supposed to be apologizing. Heck, I _never _apologize!

Then again, he looked so bloody _tired. _The dark circles under his eyes, the way he held himself: like a deflated balloon. With his hair all messed up and the hastily thrown on clothes, he looked like a homeless person. He could have been standing along the highway with all those creepy hobos with signs and would have fit right in. Ugh! How was I going to fix this stupid thing? Should I apologize? Should I go back and let _him _apologize? What do I do?

I was so preoccupied in sulking and trying to figure out how to fix this problem, it took me a while to realize that I had run quite a long distance and was standing in some random park. I located a bench and set out towards it; my legs were sore from the run and I was breathing heavily. Right now I wanted to do nothing but collapse on that pretty wooden bench and stretch my tired muscles.

I sat down next to some blonde bloke, making sure to keep as much distance as possible between us. I was definitely not in the mood for human interaction right now.

Careful as to not make eye contact, I glanced at my neighbor. With his tan skin and tall, muscular complexion, he looked like he belonged on a surf board in California, not in a random park in New York. But honestly, I didn't care that much, it wasn't my business, after all. I turned around, pointedly ignoring his unnerving stare, and prayed to the gods that he wouldn't try to start a conversation. I _really _was not in the mood for a conversation. I just hoped that the _he_ would realize it.

"Hey, you okay?"

I groaned mentally. Of course! Why in the world would I think that luck was actually on my side? I turned towards the speaker and forced myself not to glare _too hard. _"What do you think?"

"Just wondering. You look pretty worn out." he said, shooting me a smile full of perfect while teeth.

I realized that I probably did look like a wreck: a sweaty, tired, dirty wreck with puffy red eyes. The bloke was just helpful enough to point that out. Still, I didn't appreciate people bugging me about my problems. Heck, I didn't even know this guy. "So sorry, but I don't talk to strangers." I shot back.

Surfer-boy just smiled, as if my comment had amused him somehow. He held his hands up, as if surrendering. "Just thought that I could help."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Yes, like I usually solve my problems by asking some random pretty-boy I found on the street for advice."

The 'pretty-boy' just laughed. It wasn't a cruel laugh, more like an I'm-laughing-because-I-think-that-it-will-make-you-feel-better kind of laugh. And unfortunately, it did. I took another look at the boy that I was sitting next to. He looked much younger than I previously thought: about fifteen or sixteen. He had a strange tiny scar on his lip that made me wonder if he had been in street fights before. His eyes unnerved me the most. Hey held a sort of power to them, as if the boy could reduce me to dust just by looking at me. I had only seen this kind of vibe once before, in a being that was much more powerful than a mortal. Seeing the same power in the kid sitting next to me kind of freaked me out.

"So," I tried to shake off my uneasiness. "What are you doing in Brooklyn? You don't look like you're from here."

"You don't either." he countered.

"Let me guess, it's my accent, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Well too bad, I asked the question first."

The boy shook his head, as if in disbelief, then answered "I was going to see some friends, and sort of stopped here for a while." Yeah right.

"That sounds extremely unconvincing."

He shrugged, and we sat in silence for a while, both of us staring into nowhere. Across from our bench, I could see a couple of kids running around on the grass, throwing clumps of dirt at each other and laughing. A group of women that seemed to be their mothers sat at a picnic table nearby, chatting and gossiping. Compared to Manhattan, which I had visited once or twice before, Brooklyn seemed like a much more peaceful place to be in, without all the traffic and noise. It was one of the reasons why I liked living here. It made you forget sometimes that you had a bunch of crazy problems that the mortals didn't even know about.

"I'm Jason, by the way."

I turned to see the boy, now dubbed Jason, smiling amiably, his hand held out in a handshake. I took it, a small smirk forming on my lips, "Sadie Kane."

Our little conversation was interrupted by a sudden noise coming from the bushes behind us. It sounded like...a growl? Turned, and saw a stray cat hissing at us from on top of a tree. Huh, maybe it didn't like handshakes?

Jason stood up, a determined scowl forming on his face. His right hand was clutching something in the pocket of his jeans, his left positioned in front of me protectively. "Stay here." he commanded, cautiously approaching the feline.

I snorted at him. Honestly, as if the guy never saw angry cats before. "It's just a stupid cat. Don't get so worked up."

Jason shook his head. "It's not just a cat."

"Oh really?" I raised an eyebrow, and got down on my knees in front of the creature. "Come here kitty kitty!" I used my best cat voice on it, the type of voice I would use on my own cat — Muffin, otherwise known as the goddess Bast. If that worked on the queen of cats, then I saw no reason why it wouldn't work in this situation, too.

It didn't work. Looking back at it, it was a pretty idiotic thing to do. [ No comments from you, Carter!] Unfortunately, I realized too late what kind of surprise I was in for.

The cat let out one last hiss, and leaped off the tree branch. It landed on the spot of grass right in front of us, and _grew._ The orange tone of its fur faded into a sickly gray one. The body expanded right in front of my eyes, until it was the size of a jeep. It's snout extended from a flat, feline one to a long, toothed...rat? The tail shed all of its fur and stretched out until it was the same length as the creature itself. It's red, beady eyes glared at us, the sharp razor-like teeth just waiting to tear both of us to shreds.

That was the time when I realized just how stupid I was.

The rat-thing lunged.


	2. Chapter 2: Teen Movie Extras

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**Chapter Two: Teen Movie Extras and Magical Monster Glitter. (Oh, and Carter, too.)**

Let me tell you this ahead of time: I am not one to get caught by surprise. Studying ancient

Egyptian magic as well as stopping a giant chaos snake from ending the world does that to you,

believe me. So far, in my short thirteen (almost fourteen) years of living, I've a)been possessed by a temperamental goddess, b)tamed the god of evil, and c)defeated numerous monsters, demons, and gods. Yes, Carter helped me through some of the challenges, but a lot of times I had to make my stand alone.

So you would _think _that facing some rat monster in the middle of Brooklyn is nothing compared

to everything else I did. Apparently, my experience said otherwise.

When the rat charged at me, ready to mince me up with those sharp rodent teeth, the only thing

that went through my head was: I am going to die in the jaws of some feline wanna be.

I mean seriously! Why would a mouse disguise itself as a cat? Ironic much? Or maybe it wanted to see if being the predator was more fun than the prey. Well, if the monster was ever looking for my opinion, I think the rat body is a tad bit more impressive.

These were pretty much the exact thoughts going through my head as the thing charged at me. Not _Oh! The wild rat used tackle! Maybe I should get out of the way! _Yeah, I know, I'm stupid. [Yes, I actually said that, Carter. Don't look so surprised!]

The monster's teeth were inches away from my head when Jason tackled me to the ground,

effectively saving both of our lives. The rat sailed through the air and landed behind us, growling

angrily. It spun around, getting ready for another attack.

I stood up, spitting dirt and grass out of my mouth, and backed away slowly. Jason followed my

lead, still clutching something in his pocket. I watched as the mortals around us ran screaming out of the park, shouting about what sounded like a rabid evil death cat.

That was when I noticed that Jason didn't look all that shocked. In fact, he looked like he was taking a fighting stance, getting ready for battle. It occurred to me that Jason was the first person to figure out that something was wrong. I started to consider that maybe this guy was actually amagician, when the boy pulled out a shiny round...coin? Okay, how in the bloody hell will a coin help us?

I got my answer a moment later. Jason flipped the coin expertly, and caught it in his right hand.

But the coin wasn't a coin anymore, it was a three foot long, wickedly sharp, golden sword.

The boy charged at the monster's face, stabbing at the rat and making it hiss threateningly while it backed away. Jason sidestepped as the rat lurched forward, snapping its rodent like jaws, and took another stab, this time at it's side. The weapon made contact, but bounced off the creature's hide like it was made of iron. Jason rubbed his arm awkwardly, suffering from a rebound. The rat took its opportunity and tackled its opponent, knocking the sword out of his hands and forcing him to the ground. I kind of expected a little more from someone who could conjure a sword out of thin air, but oh well. Time for Sadie Kane to save the day. Again.

I looked around frantically for something to throw at the monster and distract it. Grabbing the first

random rock that I spotted, I threw it at the rat. The pebble bounced harmlessly off the creature's pelt, but it sure as hell got its attention.

The creature turned its red beady eyes toward me. It let out a long, gravelly growl, filled with vicious, slimy teeth. I considered whether to run or not; that thing looked really angry. Crawling forward, the rat left its previous snack be and instead decided that the girl in combat boots looked much tastier. My hand instinctively reached to my side, where my magician's bag usually was. Remembering that I left all my stuff back at the mansion, [What? It's not like I expected to be attacked by a vicious rat monster!] I was silently aware that I was pretty much useless in a fight now, and that I was definitely going to die. When it finally sprang forward, I was already running across the park, toward the gate. I was extremely conscious of the bounding feet of the monster behind me. Breathing so hard it almost hurt, I tore through the gate and onto the street, trying as hard as I could to avoid any innocent passerby mortals that got in the way. I had just rounded onto another random street, giant rodent behind me, when I literally ran into Carter. With a strangled yep, my brother fell on his rear end right in the middle of the street, me awkwardly stumbling on top of him. We quickly untangled ourselves, brushing off invisible dust.

Carter opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, a loud roar somewhere behind us. "What was -?"

I grabbed his wrist, effectively cutting him off, and pulled my idiot brother into a nearby alley. We

watched as the giant rat came to view, its feet pounding hard on the pavement. It occurred to me

that while the two of us were safely hidden out of sight, the rat didn't necessarily have to use its eyes to find us. Actually, eyes would probably be the last thing it would use. They again, I'm not an expert on killer rats – I wouldn't know for sure. So all I could do was silently pray to the gods that the disgusting stink of the nearby garbage container was enough to mask our sent.

I heard Carter gasp quietly when the monster came into view. The rodent trotted on, absolutely

oblivious to the two teenagers huddled behind a dirty dumpster. The monster disappeared around the corner, which I was glad for. I did not want to be squished behind that gross hunk of metal forever.

We both climbed out slowly from the cramped space. Carter sent me a glare, as if asking _What did you do now?_ Ha! As if it was my fault that a freaky giant rat was chasing after me! [Shut it, Carter.] "Yeah, yeah, save the lecture for later. So, Mr. Encyclopedia, do you know what that thing is?"

My brother immediately developed this annoyingly thoughtful look on his face, like he was trying

to figure out the meaning of life or something. He gets this look every time Egyptian mythology is

brought up. I hated that look. It was as if he was saying _hey, I'm thinking. Please shut up 'cause i don't need your advice._

"Well..." Carter began, drawing out the "L's". "The only description it fits is the _Ichneumon_."

"Ickie- what now?"

"_Ichneumon_. It's a type of carnivorous rat."

"Well, no duh, Captain Obvious."

Carter shook his head and continued his mythology rambling, completely ignoring me. "According to mythology, it is the killer of crocodiles. It hides in the mud until it's skin

hardens in the sun, then rushes into the mouth of an unsuspecting crocodile and devours it from the inside."

I stared at him for a while. Then "Ew! That's disgusting, Carter! What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing!" He immediately leaped at defending himself, "It's what the legends that I read say!"

"But that's just...ugh! It eats the crocodile? From the inside?" I made some ugh -ew- gross noises in the back of my throat, wringing my hands from sheer disgust, when a stray thought hit me.

"Wait...if that's the size of the rat, then what's the size of the crocodile?"

Carter frowned, eyebrows scrunched together. "Uh, actually, its supposed to be tiny, normal

sized."

"Alright, well why is that one the size of a bloody car?"

"I don't know! I'm not the one who it's chasing after now, am I?"

"Oi! It wasn't my fault!"

"Really? When is it not your fault? "

"Huh, you have a point there."

"Oh, for the love of...do we have to do this now?" Carter threw his hands up dramatically. "Look,

we have a giant rat monster on the loose. We need to stop it before it...before it..."

"...before it eats an innocent crocodile?"

"Exactly!"

I sighed, not really caring about the argument anymore. "Fine. I'll need my stuff, though."

Carter grinned and pulled my wand and staff out of his magician's bag. "Here."

I gaped at him. "How...?"

"Did I know that you'd need it? Oh please, don't you think that I would know my little sister by

now?"

"S -shut up! It's not that often that I get into trouble." But I was grinning. With my magic tools by

my side, I actually stood a chance against this monster. I wasn't helpless anymore. I felt like doing a victory dance, but that will have to wait. Defeating the ickie thing came first, celebrating came later.

That was when I finally remembered a very important fact. "Oh come on!"

My brother jumped up in surprise. "What? What is it?"

I face palmed. "Er, I kind of forgot about this guy I met earlier." I peeked through my fingers at a

confused Carter. "He, um, kind of saved my life and I, um, kind of ditched him."

Carter frowned at me. "A guy you say?"

"Yeah, I think his name was John or Jordan or something." I took me a while figure out why exactly Carter was giving me a strange look. "Ew! So not like that, Carter! I barely know this guy,

I just met him a couple of minutes ago! Plus, I already have a boyfriend."

"Your boyfriend is the god of death."

"So?"

"Nevermind." he shook his head, as if thinking why am I wasting time on this? "Alright, let's go

save this John. "

"No, I'm pretty sure his name is Jason."

"Alright then, let's go save this Jason guy. Jeez, he sounds like some 70s teen movie extra or

something."

"He _looks_ like a 70s teen movie extra, too."

"...Great, just great."

. . .

It didn't take us a while to find the random park that I had blindly stumbled into before. All we had

to do was follow the trail of destruction the giant rat monster had left behind, and we arrived back

to the starting point.

Jason was apparently waiting for us. He was sitting right in the middle of the now destroyed little park, looking as if this was what he saw every day in his life. Which, if my theory about him being a magician was true, he probably did.

"Hi." Carter said, kind of awkwardly.

"Hi." Jason returned the greeting, looking back and forth between the two of us, then looked at me. "Glad to see you're still alive. So, are you a half-blood?"

"What?" This was the second time that I have heard that term used before, and I was pretty sure

that Jason didn't mean our African American/European heritage.

"Are you half-bloods? You know, demigods."

Then it all clicked into place. A magician that wasn't actually a magician, the freaky golden coin

sword: it all pointed to only one thing.

"Oh, gods. You're Greek."

"Um, actually, I'm Roman."

"Same thing."

Carter shot me a look that said that _no, it's not the same thing_, but I ignored him.

You see, I _met_ a demigod a couple of months ago. In short, the meeting involved a freaky three

headed monster -staff, a blonde version of Carter, and a giant guy with a flower basket on his head. It was fun while it lasted, but then again, suddenly finding out that there was another set of egotistic ancient gods somewhere? Yeah, not so fun anymore. In fact, it was far from fun. I actually spent the rest of the day in my bedroom screaming my head out in frustration.

And now both my brother and I had just met another demigod. Wonderful.

"Look, uh..." Carter tried, figuring out what he should say to this guy. "Well, we're not really..."

"Hey, what have you been doing all this time?" I cut Carter off, turning to Jason. "Picking flowers while I get eaten by Mickey Mouse?"

He stared at me. "You know, you remind me a lot of one of my friends. And no, I wasn't picking flowers. I was trying to figure out what that is." he pointed at the spot he was sitting next to when we found him. Something was glinting in the dust, giving off a steady pulse of magic. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be dust. Golden dust. O-kay then.

"It's monster dust," Way to go, Carter, for stating the obvious! "but why is it here? I mean, the monster's still alive, isn't it?"

I crouched, staring at the glittering particles of mysteriousness. The powder lay scattered almost innocently in the freshly cut park grass. It sparkled in the sunlight, giving off a vibe that was clearly not normal. Or earthly, for that matter. The dust looked way too bright to have come from a monster, but nevertheless, in had. "Let's poke it with a stick, and see what happens."

Both boys looked at me, bewildered. "That's...a _really _bad idea." Jason finally managed to say.

"That was sarcasm. Calm down."

"You know, you act so similarly to him that it's ridiculous." Jason gave me a pointed look, like he was trying to figure out what to do with me. Carter just rolled his eyes.

"She's always like that. Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

Jason shook his head. "So, what do we do with it?"

Carter frowned at the monster glitter, cupping his chin with one hand. It was his favorite pose. "We should collect it. Maybe it could tell us why the _Ichneumon _is bigger than normal. And why it didn't go after us."

I understood what he meant. It was highly rare for a monster to leave a magician be, especially one with as much magic as Carter and I had. The fact that the rat hadn't found us yet was strange. It was like it grew tired of chasing me, and moved on to do other things. Whether this was good or bad is hard to tell. Maybe the dust could help us figure out just that.

Carter took out one of his empty potion vials that I had given him a while ago, and handed it to me. I gently scooped up some of the glittery substance with my hand and poured it into the vial. Sealing it with the cap, i handed the dust back to Carter, who quickly put it away in his bag.

Jason watched the procedure with silence. He looked thoughtfully at the two of us, as if trying to figure out some tricky puzzle. "Wait, what were your guys' names again?"

"Kane," Carter replied. "why?"

Jason's eyes widened, as if he just remembered something big. Really big. 'You're...those guys, aren't you? The Egyptian ones."

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**HUZZAH! UPDATED! And a half a month hadn't even passed, yet! And yes, I'm being sarcastic. Soory for the long wait, guys. I've gotten distracted by...other stuff. (Glares at Fullmetal Alchemist).**

**Aaanyway. No, I'm not Uncle Rick. If I was, you'd know. **

**Nico: Why am I here, again?**

**Me: Cause I said so. And I'm bored. And the reason why I didn't post for a while is because there were, like, two reviews.**

**Nico: You, you didn't post because you're lazy and you never finish your stories.**

**Me: (Glares at Nico) Seriously, guys! There is like at least 12 of you who like this, yet only a sixth reviewed the first chapter! How about a deal: You guys give me more reviews, and i give you more chapters? How does that sound?**

**Shout out for the people who _did _review. Ya guys get cookies! (::) (::)**

**What I did good on: The fight scenes, I think. And the dialouge. The dialouge always comes easier for me.**

**What I did bad on: Serous Sadie is seriosly hard to write. **


	3. So There ARE People Who Are Crazier

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**Chapter Three: So There ARE People Who Are Crazier Than Us.**

There are two things that I hate the most in the world: Sadie's music choices and explanations. Or rather the _lack _of explanations. One moment my sister dragged me into some random park to meet some random guy, and the next thing I know is that we're taking a taxi Horus-knows-where with a 70's movie star wannabe at our side.

"So...mind telling us where exactly we're going?" I asked a bit warily. The whole "Don't Get Into a Car With a Stranger" talk that my dad beat into my brain years ago was starting to resurface. I knew that I could easily take care of Sadie and myself if needed, but the whole situation still got me on edge.

"Camp Half-Blood," Jason replied, then added: "don't worry. I assure you that we have no intention of hurting you or your sister. We just wan't to talk." The guy sounded like he just read my mind, meaning that he either actually _did _(Hey, weirder stuff happened, okay?), or he has been in this situation before. Probably the latter, but you never know.

"Relax," Sadie rolled her eyes, "my brother's just paranoid. And a jerk." See what a good, caring sister she is? This is the little monster that I have to put up with _every day._

"Huh," Jason shook his head in amusement. "You guys certainly are an...interesting family."

_More like dysfunctional, _I thought to myself.

The cab finally came to a stop...in the middle of nowhere. Great.

"Ya sure this is the place?" the driver asked from the front, looking around the abandoned fields that stretched endlessly into the horizon.

"Yeah." Jason handed the driver a generous amount of cash, which the cabbie gratefully took. "Ya kids better be careful, alright?" The guy sounded like he was honestly concerned for us, which made me worry even more. "I've heard some pretty weird things happen around these parts."

"We'll be careful." Jason said with an amused twinkle in his eye, as if he knew some secret that we had no clue about. The demigod climbed out of the taxi, Sadie and me at his heels. The cab driver took one last worried look at us, before he sped off down the gravelly road.

"So...where are we?" my sister butted in, glancing around the vast greenery surrounding us.

"Long Island." was all that Jason said. "Come on."

The half-blood led us across the empty fields surrounding us, Sadie's boots stomping through the tall grass. The walk wasn't long, but the farther we got from the road, the more that pit of dread in my stomach made itself known. There was just something _wrong _about this whole place. The fields obviously had powerful magic surrounding them, but the type of power it had did not feel right. Every instinct I had developed through years of monster fighting told me to _run_, get away from this place with its mysterious magic powers. Yet I still followed the blond dude, Sadie right next to me. I could tell that she must have felt the wrongness, too. Those ugly combat boots that she insisted on wearing stomped a little louder than usual, and her hands were clenched instinctively around her staff and wand. As much as my little sister tried to hide it, I could tell that she was just as weary of this situation as I was.

The path took us to a pine tree, growing straight out of the middle of the field. A bit farther away, a red farmhouse stood, gleaming brightly in the sunlight. But the pine tree was the most interesting. First off, it was huge, and stuck straight out of the grassy terrain. Its needled branches spread around it like a furry canopy. It looked almost unusually healthy, with thick, luscious needles and strong-looking branches. Something gleamed at the lowest branch of the tree. Up close, I realized that it was some sort of golden cloth, like a coat or and expensive-looking jacket. Around the base of the tree was a long, rounded piece of metal, like a giant copper donut.

Jason stopped in front of the tree. "That's Thalia's Tree." he gestured at the overgrown bush behind him. "It marks the borders of camp half-blood. It usually lets demigods pass it, but, well, _you're _not exactly demigods, so..."

Sadie cut him off by striding right past him. She went fight on through the invisible border and gasped.

"Carter, you have to see this."

I joined her, Jason right at my heels. As I passed the tree, I felt the magical peel back, like I was walking straight into a wall of Jell-O. But it wasn't the sight beyond it that truly made me go "Woah.."

The supposedly empty field wasn't empty at all. Twelve or more little cabins surrounded the farmhouse, each looking weirder than the last, all with their own unique style or design. I could see an arena about a quarter of a mile away, and beyond that: the glittering surface of a lake. Kids about our age milled around, either chatting with friends or heading off somewhere. Most of them wore regular clothes: jeans, T-shirts, what you would usually wear in a summer camp. Some wore orange T-shirts with "CHB" spelled out in front. Some wore greek-looking battle armor, the stuff you usually see on wax mannequins in a history museum. The architecture on the buildings wasn't any more normal, either. Most of it was greek, with a tad bit of roman influence thrown in. The only building that looked at least semi-sane was the red farmhouse. The place reminded you of a modern summer camp smashed together with an ancient greek training pavilion. I soon started to question which time period I was in.

"Welcome," Jason said behind us, "to Camp Half-Blood."

...

Everyone at "Camp Half-Blood" was apparently insane. This shouldn't have surprised me, being part of the Kane family and all. If there was someone who completely lost their marbles, then it was Sadie [Ow! Alright, me too! Just don't kick me again]

Still, I couldn't help but feel impressed at how effectively all these kids threw sanity out the window.

The first thing that I noticed that clued me on this fact was the dragon. Or _one _of the dragons (I'll get to the other one later). The metal donut that I saw wrapped around the pine tree was not a donut at all. It wasn't metal, either. A fifteen foot long fire-breathing lizard snored peacefully in its sleep, its tough-looking scales rising and falling in rhythm of its breath. Of course, that didn't stop me from almost wetting my pants when I actually noticed it. [Shut it, Sadie, your reaction wasn't that flattering as I recall.]

"What," I chocked, "is _that_?"

"Oh, that's Peleus." Jason said it like he was introducing a classmate to us, not a fire-breathing monstrosity from the Land of Chaos. "He guards the Golden Fleece."

I looked up at the Fleece in question. Instead of the jacket that I had thought was hanging off the tree, the golden cloth turned out to be a furry piece of sheep skin, golden in color. "Wait, _that's _the golden fleece? The one from that greek myth?"

"Yep. The real deal right there. It keeps Thalia's tree young and healthy, so that the camp borders don't go down all of the sudden like they did _last time._"

I averted my gaze from the sheep-skin (and the scaly monster sleeping below), turning my attention to the rest of the camp. The second thing that I noticed that made me start questioning these guys' sanity was the climbing wall up ahead. As we got closer to it, Jason leading us through the numerous crowds of "campers", I noticed that the wall wasn't just a piece of plastic for rock climbing.

First of all, it was huge, about fifty feet high. The ledges on it almost seemed real, like someone had purposely dragged a piece of cliff here from a nearby mountain. Upon second glance, I noticed crazy contraptions sticking from its sides, not doubt designed to horribly maim their victims. So far, the five or six kids climbing it got more injuries than all of Brooklyn House did during April Fools [Yes, Sadie, I _still _remember that, it wasn't pretty.] Oh, and did I mention that the thing spews _burning lava? _Yeah, you should know that.

Sadie stared at the contraption with an expression akin to hero worship. Mine was more along the lines of "Absolute Terror."

"Brilliant," my sister breathed.

"Um," Jason laughed awkwardly, probably questioning her sanity as much as I was questioning his.

We made I further into camp. Some of the kids around us spotted Jason and waved. Our "tour guide" waved back with a smile. Surfer dude sure seemed extremely popular here.

"Jason!" a native american girl ran up to us in greeting. She smiled and kissed Jason of the cheek, and my immediate thought was "girlfriend!".

"Hey, Piper." Jason grinned.

Look, if I try to describe this girl, then Zia would probably kill me in the next twenty-four hours, so I'll just leave it to Sadie later on...Or I could just do it right now, considering that my sister's problem with giving me favors. [Alright, just stop that evil stare of yours, it's creepy!]

Piper was tall, about my height. [Yes, I do consider myself tall, Sadie.] She had choppy, dark brown hair that was pulled back in a long brain, colorful feathers sticking out of it. She wore a "CHB" T-shirt, a little crumpled, and mid-calf shorts. She...well...she was beautiful. And I mean it in the most platonic and factual way possible. She looked way better than my sister did, at least. [Hey, you know it's true!] With those kaleidoscope eyes, I could see why Jason liked her. She was nothing compared to Zia, though [And no, I'm not just saying that to avoid my death.]. Zia, well, Zia was just my type, I guess. Piper seemed like the girl who would encourage her friends, and help them hold their ground. Zia, meanwhile, was more stoic, a leader. She would not be the one supporting, she would be the one to charge into battle, staff blazing.

Anyway, Piper turned to look at us questioningly. "New?" She asked Jason, who shook his head and whispered something in her ear. "Oh. " I don't know _what _exactly he said to her, but the girl's face paled visibly. She forced a smile, addressing us. "You'll have to go talk to Annabeth, then. She'll know what to do."

Sadie's eyes widened. "You _know _Annabeth?"

Piper nodded, her eyes grim. "Now you better hurry. I think we've got another Great Prophecy on our hands."

* * *

**Yeah Yeah, I know. This chapter is a tad bit shorter than the other ones, but there's not really a lot going on. This was really fun to write, though. This chapter marks the end of the spoiler-free story. The next one will have spoilers for Blood of Olympus, so beware!**

**Anyway, I want to start a little "ask-the-characters" thing in my author notes. Be free to send questions to the characters. The questions will be answered by the characters appearing in the previous chapter (for the sake of consistency). **


	4. Chapter 4: Dawn of Killer Poetry

**So, quick note here: spoilers for Blood of Olympus. Big spoilers. Spoilery spoilers. Don't spoil yourself, read the book first. **

**C**

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**Chapter 4: Dawn of Killer Poetry. **

Jason stared at her. For a long time. A really long time. A time of uncomfortable length. It started to get awkward really quickly. "What?"

Piper sighed. "Just...find Annabeth. She'll explain everything."

"But the Oracle-"

"I know."

"How?"

"I don't know."

And that was how their cryptic conversation ended. Piper excused herself, hurrying on deeper into the crowd. Jason looked at us, as if just realizing _Oh! You're still here! _"Come on, then."

Sadie and I shared the what-was-that-all-about look. It's kind of sad how naturally that look came to us.

"So, I'm guessing you're not about to explain?" Sadie asked our tour guide.

"Look, _I _don't even know what's going on. Like Piper said, Annabeth will probably tell us."

Annabeth. I remembered that name. Sadie called her clever. Hopefully, she was right. I don't really remember the whole "Serapis Staff" incident. All I really know is that it involved Sadie, a three-headed staff, a crazy Alexandrian god, and Annabeth. Considering the fact that she helped my sister take down said god, I knew that I shouldn't underestimate her.

"Carter? You have The Look." Sadie looked kind of concerned.

"What look?"

"_The _look. The oh-crap-what-have-we-got-ourselves-into look."

"I do?"

"Yes."

"Huh, didn't notice."

If Jason heard the conversation, he didn't question it. We passed more freaky architecture, more freaky campers and approached the red-roofed house. Jason climbed the porch steps, opening the creaky front door to let us in. The inside looked-[Ow! Jeez, you do realize that most of these are filled with you either insulting or abusing me?] Sorry, but Sadie has a problem with descriptions, apparently. Anyway, it looked like a farmhouse mixed with a trophy room. Numerous objects lined the shelves on the walls, ranging from what looked like horns, teeth, claws and hides to various items that looked like they belonged in a museum. I spotted five scrolls, seven helmets, a couple of paintings, jars, and other artifacts. "Great," Sadie muttered. "More ancient junk."

I looked at a photograph shelf. A lot of them looked like they were taken decades ago, yet some looked pretty modern. Most had kids about our age, probably previous campers. I spotted one with Piper and Jason. The two where laughing at the camera, holding hands. There was another camper in it, two. A Latino kid, about the same age as the couple, stood in the middle. Out of all three of them, this guy was probably the weirdest-looking.

First of all, he was short. Not shorter than Sadie, probably, but definitely shorter than me. His curly mop of brown hair and the orange "CHB" T-shirt he wore were all stained in machine oil, so it looked like the kid just climbed out of a truck engine. He had the "mad scientist" grin plastered on his face, the kind that said "I'm about to blow something up". He had this energetic look in his eyes, a look someone could easily get by drinking twelve cups of coffee in the morning. And he kind of looked like an elf. I don't think the pointed ears helped with that, either.

"Who's that?" I couldn't help but ask, pointing at the picture. Jason turned around, his gaze landing on the photograph. I saw a (kind of familiar) flash of sorrow pass across his face, as if the memory he was recalling was too painful to remember. I saw this face quite often, especially after the battle with Apophis. This was the same expression that I find in Zia's eyes whenever she talks about her parents or Iskandar, the man who took care of her for many years. This was the look you get after the loss of a loved one.

"That...that was a friend." Jason hesitated. "There was a war last summer."

Despite the fact that these statements make no sense out of context, I immediately understood. Jason said the word _was _which meant that this kid was most definitely dead. Obviously he died in the war mentioned, and obviously he meant to Jason _a lot. _This made me feel kind of guilty of asking about this guy. Which was stupid, since there was no way I could've known.

"Jason!" someone said behind me. I turned around.

A girl was standing on the other side of the room. Her curly blonde hair was tied back in a pony tail, and she wore a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt (at that point, I was pretty sure that I knew what the "CHB" stood for) with blue jeans. The strangest thing about her were her eyes. They were grey, and had this sort of power to them, like they knew more than they should have. Having those eyes stare at me gave me a feeling of being analyzed, like the girl took my every word and move into account, coming to conclusions and figuring out how to use that knowledge for her benefit. I remembered that having grey eyes was a symbol of wisdom in ancient Greece. I immediately knew who this girl was.

"You're Annabeth, aren't you?"

The girl nodded. "Carter Kane. Sadie mentioned you...when we met."

Sadie grinned next to me, then strode to the other side of the room, hugging our new arrival as if they were old friends. "Don't mind Carter," she glanced at me, "he's a bit out of it recently."

"_What?_"

Annabeth ignored my sister's comment, studying me intently. "You look very alike."

Now it was my sister's turn to go _"What?"_

See, we, as siblings, look nothing like each other. Somehow, genetics or whatever, our mixed race parents produced mixed race us, and, well, it got awkward whenever we mentioned our relationship, since a) we were complete opposites appearance-wise and b) we were complete opposites personality-wise.

So having the blonde girl throw that comment right out there made even Jason look slightly confused.

"That's not what's important right now." the Grey-eyed half-blood frowned.

"Another prophecy?" Jason cut in. "But...Rachel doesn't give prophecies anymore."

Annabeth sighed. "It _wasn't _Rachel, though, it was..." she glanced at us briefly. "You know who."

"What, Voldemort?" Sadie snorted. "Come on! Whatever that "prophecy" you guys are are so worried about is, it's probably has _us _involved one way or the other. Otherwise, we won't, you know, _be here._"

The older girl grew quiet, which I knew from experience _wasn't _a good sign. "Yes, you're right. It _does _have something to do with you two. But _not _in a good way."

"Oh, come on!" I cried, my annoyance growing. First we get dragged into the middle of nowhere without any explanation, then visit this camp which is pretty much an ADHD version of Brooklyn House, find out that there apparently was a war right at the time when _we _were having giant serpent problems, and on top of it all, we get a prophecy that has something bad to do with us, you know, maybe because _our luck is too screwed up _to give us a _nice _prophecy with rainbows and sunshine and...I was just so _annoyed _right now I could care less if I accidentally blew the whole room up. [Oh, oh, gods, I _am _starting to sound like you, Sadie. The horror...] "Spit it out already! It's not like you have to be cryptic!"

"I..." Annabeth stared at me for a long time. Her pointed gaze was really starting to intimidate me. "You're right... I should get Chiron...a camp meeting...yes, that would be in order." She patted Sadie's shoulder and promptly left.

Well...that was helpful.

"Is she okay?" Sadie looked concerned, which was extremely out of character for her. "She seems...jumpy."

"She's like this when she's worried." Jason took a seat on the moldy couch that seemed even more ancient than the rest of the room. Me and Sadie sat awkwardly next to him. "The last time I saw her like this...Percy was missing."

Percy Jackson. I wondered where camper boy was right now. Shouldn't he be here, along with his girlfriend? Getting wound up about this "prophecy" like the rest of them were? Strangely, I felt kind of awkward without him around. After all, the only demigod I met before today was him, and seeing a familiar face would at least lower my anxiety a little.

I directed my mind to think about something else: the "prophecy". Obviously, it meant a lot to these Greeks. Of course, I knew what a prophecy was. Modern media use it mostly as plot convenience, giving an excuse for the characters to get moving and have their adventure already, as well as providing a perfect reason for every one of their actions, because that's what the _prophecy_ told them to do. If the prophecy these guys were talking about was similar, then a)it would most likely rhyme, b)it would be too cryptic for anyone to get what it's talking about until it happens and c)someone dies. So you can guess that I wasn't too excited about what was in store for us.

The three of us sat there in awkward silence, waiting for something to happen: a crazy punk-looking sister, a blond surfer dude, and me. Fortunately, we didn't wait long. A few moments later, Annabeth came back and led us to a room full shelves stacked with ancient board games and a ping pong table. A sofa, armchairs, bean bags, and regular chairs were scattered around it. I guessed this is where their "camp meeting room" was. I can now proudly say that our giant expensive-looking Egyptian library where we had regular world-blowing discussions was much more impressive. Jason and Annabeth took their seats on the sofa, so Sadie and I followed, squeezing in between them.

Various campers began filling in, ranging from ages twelve to as old as their early twenties. Jason explained briefly that they were the cabin leaders. I guessed that the whole camp wouldn't fit. Some campers greeted Jason, like they hadn't seen him for a while. One kid called him _Poniflex _or something like that, I honestly didn't care. Even though there were only as many campers as there were cabins, there weren't enough spots for everyone. Some guys had to stand. Others sat on the dust covered floor. I spotted Piper sitting on a beanbag not to far from the couch we were sitting on. She smiled at us. Or maybe just at Jason, I couldn't tell at this point. A blond-haired dude stood next to our little sofa, a dark haired kid not far away. The two seemed complete opposites. The blond kid looked even more like a surfer dude than Jason did. The other guy, on the other hand, had pale-olive skin, dark eyes, and looked like a total goth, even more than Sadie. He kind of reminded me of Anubis, the god of the dead that my sister _somehow _started dating last summer (yeah, don't ask. I have absolutely no clue how someone like Sadie could score a god. Eh, Anubis _was _kind of stuck in the underworld for most of his life. Probably didn't get to meet that many girls in general, poor guy.) I looked around the room, but I just couldn't pinpoint Camper Boy anywhere. I figured that he probably wasn't at camp at all.

The the last participant of the meeting entered the room. Or, well, _rolled _in, I guess. He was a middle-aged guy, about forty, with a curly Greek beard, and a kindly face. Oh, and I should probably mention that he was in a wheel chair. Yeah, that to.

"Chiron." Annabeth said, greeting the new arrival.

I tried to remember where I've heard that name before, but honestly, I had no clue. My area of expertise was limited to _Egyptian _mythology, meaning that I knew next to _nothing _about Greeks. That fact kind of alarmed me. You know, just slightly.

The man smiled, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. Something was bothering this guy. Probably the prophecy. Now if somebody could only tell me what the prophecy _was. _"Annabeth, I see you've managed to find them." Chiron gave Sadie and me a pointed look, which I didn't like. Not because the guy bothered me, but because the stare pretty much spelled out _"I'M SORRY __TO SAY THAT__ YOU WILL DIE SOON."_ And don't look at me, it was Sadie who insisted on those capitals.

"Wait, you were looking for us?" Sadie cut in. "What for?"

"This is Carter and Sadie Kane,the two _Egyptian magicians _Annabeth and Percy had informed us of" Chiron addressed the other campers, completely ignoring my sister (not that I could blame him). "I would be lying if I told you that finding out about that the newly freed Egyptian gods was not concerning- "

"Wait!" a voice cut in, its owner flying into the room.

Percy Jackson, in all his messed up glory, stood in the middle of the doorway. He looked like he just walked through a hurricane [I really don't get how that's a pun, Sadie], with his hair to one side and his eyes wild with energy (or maybe just madness). He scanned the room, his gaze lingering a little longer on Annabeth, before finally noticing me.

"Hey, you're the chicken-headed guy! What are ya doing here?"

Cue hysterical laughter from my sister.

Cue awkward silence from everybody else.

By now, you can probably guess that no matter how familiar the guy's face looked, I still really wanted to punch it.

"Oh my gods, that was brilliant!" Sadie jumped off the couch and shook the idiot's hand, like he was Robert Downey Jr. or something. "You're camper boy, I presume? Trust me, we'll get a long great!"

Percy just looked very confused.

"Yeah," I muttered through gritted teeth, "you'll get along great! Definitely."

Sadie turned to face me just for the sole purpose of sticking her tongue out. And she wonders why I don't treat her like a grown up.

"Ahem." Chiron cleared his throat, motioning the two to sit down. Sadie claimed her original seat while Percy stood awkwardly next to Annabeth, the two having some kind of conversation using glares (well, Annabeth glared mostly. Percy just looked sheepish). "As I was saying..." the centaur turned to face us, his eyes boring holes into Sadie and me again. "There is a new prophecy that I was informed of."

Everyone who didn't know about it yet gasped, and a curly red-haired guy promptly fell out of his chair. "_What?" _Percy's word choice pretty much summarized what everyone around us was thinking.

"Can everyone just, please stay calm?" Piper's voice cut through the room like a hot knife on butter, startling everyone into silence. The demigod's voice had a strange effect. I actually felt calmer now, more together from her words. It was obvious that she was using magic, and the only other time I have ever heard magic like that was from someone I would rather not meet again.

"What's it about?" One of the campers finally broke the silence. Everyone else quickly joined in, chatting among themselves or asking the same question that was stated previously.

Two red-haired girls stood up. One was more or less human, but the other, the shorter one...she looked like a cross between a bird and a girl, with talons of hands and feathered wings stretching along her arms. The bird-girl looked nervously around the room, fidgeting with her claws and looking kind of lost among all the others around her. "Ella knows." the bird lady said, her eyes on the floor.

"Who's Ella?" Sadie wispered to Jason.

"That's Ella." the guy nodded towards the bird creature.

"Wait, so she just talks in third person?" I cut in, eying the girl.

Jason didn't say anything, so I guess that meant a "yes". Meanwhile, the human-looking red head spoke up. "Well, we're not really sure if it _is _a new prophecy, but...I've been having visions. Visions that fit what Ella had remembered from the Sibylline books. It's not a complete prophecy, sure, but-"

"Tell us what it is already!" Someone exclaimed among the crowd impatiently.

"Alright, fine. Ella?" the girl turned towards the monster, the bird looking a bit uncomfortable before reciting, in a song-like chant:

"_The worlds colliding, night is coming,_

_The sigh is glowing in the dark._

_And heaven's help, the king is falling,_

_A fire igniting from a spark."_

A heavy silence filtered around the whole room. No voice spoke. No body moved. Everyone stared, practically not blinking, at the two gingers in the middle. Usually, I have a very hard time remembering poetry. For Sadie, it's ridiculously easy, she reads it once or twice, and the thing is forever stuck in her mind. But no matter how hard I try, or how many times I read it, I never seem to remember a thing. Yet, this time, these simple four lines ere permanently imbedded in my head, and I knew that decades, or maybe even centuries could pass, and I still would know the prophecy word for word. This is the kind of impact it had on me.

"...Well. Fascinating, wasn't it?"

I had the urge to face palm. Who do you think would break the silence but Sadie? Oh, no, she wasn't done, was she? "I mean, its all epic and mysterious and stuff. Now if we could only figure out what the bloody hell that _means..."_

The human next to the bird monster spoke up. "We don't _know _what it means, that's the problem. We never know what it means until it comes true."

"Then what's the point of it?" my sister cut in.

"Well, we at least _sort of _know what's happening," Annabeth replied curtly, "instead of going into the situation completely blind."

"'_Worlds colliding', _that's Egyptians and Greeks, isn't it." Piper thought out loud, "And the night, that's most likely another apocalypse, knowing our luck."

"Then there's some kind of sign. Is it like the Mark?" Percy turned to his blond girlfriend, who was busy chewing her ponytail.

"Could be," she replied, "and a king falling...with heaven's help?"

"A spark..." Jason shared a look with Piper, both of them...hopeful? I really didn't know what that was all about.

"We will discuss the prophecy this evening during the camp fire," Chiron immediately caught everyone's attention, "but for now, I would like you to welcome our guests, Carter and Sadie Kane." He turned towards Piper. "Would you mind showing them their cabins?"

Piper smiled at us "Yeah, sure!"

And that was pretty much how the meeting ended. Most of the kids exited the room, bumping and showing, trying to get out through the small doorway, leaving only Sadie, me, and the demigods we managed to meet today.

As soon as everybody left, I glared at Percy. "_Chicken-headed guy?"_

The green-eyed kid shrugged absentmindedly. "I honestly forgot your name."

"I'm Carter. Hi. Nice to meet you." I ground out, secretly wondering how someone who remembers a person by their combat avatar could possibly save the world [No Comments from you, Sadie].

"Alright!" Piper suddenly exclaimed, grabbing everyone's attention. "Now before you guys get to kill each other, I should show you where to sleep, shouldn't I?"

I immediately agreed with her. There was not time for childish banter, we had to find our beds first! Okay, fine, that sounds kind of ridiculous, but it's been a long day. I really wanted to lie down.

Strangely, everyone else seemed to agree, too. "I'll see you guys at the campfire tonight." Annabeth stated as she left with Percy, the latter giving us a mocking salute.

"Come on, then." Jason, Sadie and I followed Piper out of the farmhouse, the afternoon sun blinding after the darkness of the building. Jason parted with us, saying that he had to talk to Percy, and disappeared into the crowd of campers.

Piper clapped her hands together, "Now that that's settled, where to put you?" She studied Sadie and me like a pair of mismatched socks lying on the bedroom floor: alone and without a partner. She approached the small buildings I know recognized as cabins, the two of us trailing behind. The three of us did or best trying not to get run over by other teenagers hurrying across campus to their numerous activities. "You see," she started to explain, "We divide people by their godly parents. Me, for instance: I'm a child of Aphrodite, so I sleep in cabin ()." She pointed towards a neat looking building, which kind of reminded me of a valentine.

Behind me, Sadie snickered. "You mean you're mom's a love goddess?"

"Yes, is that a problem?" Piper raised an eyebrow dangerously.

"No, no. It's just...I didn't think of you as the "lovey-dovey" type."

Piper just shrugged. "I'm really not. Anyway, I go with the rest of my siblings, and that's how we organize the campers."

"I'm guessing you guys don't have a place for Horus and Isis, do you?" I remarked, looking around at the assortment of cabins.

"No, sorry. But maybe if you told me what they are the gods _of, _we could probably find a matching god for you."

"Horus is war, and Isis is magic." Sadie blurted out, not even giving me a chance to speak.

Piper frowned. "Well, I could put you in Hecate's cabin, probably." Then she turned to me. "You, though. I don't think you'll get along with the Ares kids that much."

"Put him in the nerd cabin." Sadie laughed. "He'll feel right at home there."

Have I ever mentioned that sometimes I really hate my sister? Well, I do.

"With Annabeth?" Piper tapped her chin with her index finger. "Sure, that would work. Athena's the goddess of battle strategy. If Horus is anything like her, then you'll do fine there."

Before I could protest, or agree, or freak out about the fact that I'm spending the night in the same building as the scary blonde girl, a whiny voice cut across the clearing we were standing on, a voice that I strangely recognized: "You!"

A figure of a pretty Asian girl came into view, and it was none other than Drew, one of the girls at Sadie's school that my little sibling complained all the time about. The teen marched straight past Piper and me, towering over Sadie, who looked like she just swallowed a dung ball. "What the hell are _you _doing here?!"

Sadie wrinkled her nose, eying the monstrous beast that had appeared in front of her. "Hello, Drew," my sister replied, "fancy meeting you here."

Drew sneered. "Look who came crawling out of that little vermin hole of theirs. Sadie Kane, the only girl I know who's taste is even worse than our _cabin leader's._" she spit out.

"I don't live in a hole, Drew, I live in a mansion." Sadie remarked in a bored tone. "Why are you here? You know, you seem very keen on popping up in my life where you're not needed. I mean, I know I'm awesome, but seriously, you don't have to stalk me like a rabid fangirl."

Meanwhile, Drew's expression turned colder and colder. If she had ice powers, the whole planet would have probably been an icicle. She looked like she was about to say some words, and a whole lot of words, that I wasn't keen on my sister hearing. Thankfully, Piper beat her to it. "Drew, don't you have somewhere to be?" she remarked, folding her arms across her chest.

Drew sneered, but retreated. "Sure thing, _cabin leader._"

And she was gone, disappearing behind an old shack.

"Sorry about that." Piper looked sheepish. "Drew's a bit nasty at first, but she's tolerable."

"Don't worry, I'm used to that. She goes to my school." Sadie replied.

"Ooh, harsh."

"You have no bloody idea."

The next hour we spent getting to know our temporary cabin mates. Sadie looked pretty at home in the Hecate cabin after a girl named Lou Ellen greeted her with a friendly handshake. "It's really great to meet you," She remarked, "I hope to find out more about Egyptian magic."

And I managed to sort of fit in with the Athena cabin. The building was simple, with white curtains hanging on the windows, and an owl carved above the doorway. Annabeth Chase greeted me as I stepped through. She was in the cabin library (one of the two rooms in the small building. The other one were the sleeping quarters), explaining something passionately to a younger boy, pointing at parts of an architectural blueprint as she did. "It's simple, Malcolm. Cosine A is equal to the difference of the- hey!" she waved at me to come closer. "Sorry, Malcolm, I'll tell you later." the boy nodded, gathered up the blueprint and left the room, leaving only me and Annabeth in the empty library.

"Sorry you couldn't meet anybody. Everyone's at the climbing wall right now." the blonde approached me, and this time she looked...pleasant. She didn't seem to be wanting to bite my head off at least. "So, how was it?"

"The camp? Oh, fine. Bigger than Brooklyn House, but who really cares."

The girl was silent for a moment, chewing a lock of blonde hair nervously. "Sorry about dragging you to into this so suddenly. It's just...we really didn't know what to do. Rachel's been having all these visions, and I hoped that you could help us make sense of them, at least."

"It's fine, really," I shrugged a little, "we were kind of getting bored. Nothing was happening that much." A total lie, I know, giving how many times I've been visiting the first nome in Egypt.

"It's...just not fair." Annabeth continued, starring at the wooden table the blueprint was on. She rubbed a scratch on the edge with her thumb. "We've already been through two major threats, two separate apocalypses, two _great prophecies. _Everyone, the whole camp. And now its happening again, and we don't even know _what the threat is._"

"Hey," I said, trying to sound convincing, "we'll figure it out. We've done it once, and from what you just said, you guys have been through it _twice. _What's a third time gonna be?"

"People died." the daughter of Athena stated bluntly. "A lot of good people, too. One of the seven...the seven demigods mentioned in the last great prophecy, Leo, he didn't make it."

I thought back to the Latino kid in the picture, the one Annabeth mentioned. Loosing someone who was close to you hurt. It hurt a lot. I knew where this demigod was coming from. Annabeth was scared that the same thing would happen to another one of her friends.

Neither one of us said anything for a long time. Finally, something else occurred to me, something thankfully a lot less depressing. "You said "the seven of the prophecy". Who are they?"

Annabeth smiled as the sad atmosphere started to clear somewhat. "There were seven demigods that had to travel to Greece last summer, so stop Gaea from awakening."

My Greek knowledge was limited. "Who?"

And wisdom's daughter launched into a story of how exactly she and her six friends prevented an ancient Greek goddess from taking over the Earth. She told me about the Argo II, and the giants, and the switching of Percy and Jason, and how two camps came together only to try to kill each other at the end. She told me of how she recovered the statue of Athena, and how it put an end to the Greek/Roman dispute. There were four Greeks from Camp Half-Blood, and three from Camp Jupiter. The four of us were Percy, Annabeth, Piper and Leo – children of Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite and Hephaestus respectively. The others were Jason, Frank, and Hazel – kids of Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto. "Frank is a battle strategist and Praetor of New Rome. And Hazel is sweet. I think you'll like both of them." she told me, smiling all the while describing her friends.

There was one question that bothered me, though. "You said "Romans". What do you mean by that?"

"They're children of the Roman versions of the gods. Why? What's wro-" then she stiffened, her brows forming a crease. "Oh, do you think that's a-"

"Problem?" I finished, "Honestly, I don't know. I'm not that worried about Brooklyn House, but other nomes...there are some magicians that are old enough to remember the fall of Egypt. I really don't know how they would react – finding out there's a whole _city _full of Romans." Sadie didn't understand what was wrong. She treated Jason fine, and I really don't think of him as a bad guy, but others might. Others that had been around since the fall of Egypt, and remember exactly how the Romans contributed to that. And I didn't want to start a war. Yeah, another war would not be good.

"Well, if it helps, I don't think the Romans will be that hostile to you guys." Annabeth stated. "At least with Octavian gone."

"Uh, who?" she didn't mention that part.

"Never mind."

"Okay."

After that conversation ended, Annabeth showed me a spare bunk that I could sleep on, as well as the rest of the cabin. I didn't waste time exploring, though, and immediately after the cabin leader was gone, crashed onto the soft sheets of the unused bed. Unfortunately, my Ba decided to take a trip without me agreeing. The second I closed my eyes, I dreamed of running.

The tunnel I was running through was dark, damp, and a little bit creepy. Alright, really creepy. Spider webs littered the cracks in the walls, and the coldness of the air made my wheezing breath turn to steam. I could barely see where I was going. My legs hurt really badly. My head spun. I felt like I was about to cough up a lung. I desperately wanted to stop, but I couldn't. If I stopped, then the thing chasing me would catch up, and my guts would probably spill all over this tunnel.

I was terrified.

A part of me, the one that realized that this was a dream, wondered exactly _why _I was so scared. It wasn't until I heard the Voice that I knew the answer.

"_Run, little demigod. You wont run far." _the thing behind me laughed—the most sadistic, evil, conspicuous laugh ever came from its throat. The Voice was quiet and raspy, like it hadn't spoken for thousands of years. It sounded so close, I had to turn and look.

I regretted it the moment I did. The monster was something out of anyone's horror story. I don't remember what it looked like, since my used-to-traumatic-imagery brain decided to delete that part the second I woke up. All I remember is that it was scary. [Well, I'm sorry I can't provide a full description of it, Sadie. I thought you hated descriptions, anyway?]

The creature hissed at me, a sound that made my legs turn to jelly and my spinal cord to freeze. And then the dream changed.

I wasn't running this time, I was floating. As a chicken-bodied ghost – my usual Ba form. I seemed to be in a giant cave-like hall. The ceiling was sloping toward the ground, like an egg shell. The colorless tiles on the floor reflected the light from the numerous torches around the room. Egyptian hieroglyphs floated in the air, further illuminating the otherwise dark wide space.

A cloaked figure knelt at the center of the chamber, chanting something from a scroll. Once in a while a hieroglyph would appear form the text, floating upward to join the others. I watched an Ankh fly past me as another being entered the room, the great double doors at the end letting light flow in. With a startled gasp, I realized that it wasn't a human – it was a ghost. And a ghost that I recognized.

"Lord Setne." the kneeling figure stated, lowering its head in a bow, "Everything will be ready in a few days. The demigods wont see it coming." I couldn't figure out if the voice was male or female. It was one of those genderless ones.

Setne grinned. "Excellent. I trust that you know what to do."

The figure nodded, seeming to go back to reading the scroll. "What about the Greeks? I heard the two camps came to peace last summer. What if the Greeks came to their rescue?"

"We'll make sure they don't."

…

**Dun, dun, dun! Great, huh? Lets see how they get out of this one! **

**I spent so much time trying to come up with a good prophecy, and in the end it took me...about two minutes to come up with the final product. Don't you guys just love ****Dr.**** S****eu****ss****y poetry? Eh, better than what Apollo could come up with, anyway. **

**Time for questions!**

**Bearkitty1 asks Jason: ****"What the heck went through your mind when you found out there was another whole pantheon of gods? If I were you, I would have freaked out- first Roman, then Greek, and now Egyptian. How did you react to this new revelation?"**

**Jason: Uh...Well, I was shocked, that's for sure.**

**Piper: More like freaked...nice pun by the way. Leo would've been proud...-sad face- **

**Jason: Whatareyoutalkingaboutididnothingofthatsortiwascompletelyfine. **

**Sadie: Really?**

**Annabeth: I don't know, but I think I heard screaming...and sobbing...**

**Percy: Yeah, something about "I can't believe it! They have a bazillion gods! How am I supposed to make temples for all of them?"**

**Carter: He...does realize Egyptian is a whole different religion, right?**

**Annabeth: Let's just say that he was slow on the uptake. **

**Son Of The Herobrine asks: ****Was that actually an Ichneumon or some other strange rat creature?**

**Carter: Well, it fits the description so yes. Though there was something wrong with it...plus that weird fairy dust we found...**

**Final note: that last chapter I updated...worked so hard on...established relationships in...didn't get any reviews! Guys, and I say this from the bottom of my heart, review! Please! **


	5. Chapter 5: I Get a Permanent Tattoo

**Warning: this chapter has exactly ONE curse word in it. And from an unlikely character, too. **

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**Chapter 5: I Get a Permanent Tattoo.**

Well, I see how it is. Copying my cliffhanger strategy? Trying to show me up? Well, I am truly sorry to say that no matter how hard you try, brother dear, your parts still turn out lame. [What? Please don't glare, your lack of skill is painful to watch.]

Anyway, after Piper confirmed our temporary stay at this camp of godly weirdos, I got too meet my fellow cabin mates for the day. I figured that we would be staying here at least until tomorrow. By then, we would have to figure out how to not let the Greeks and the Egyptians kill each other, decode the prophecy that Annabeth and the others are so eager to decode, and figure out if doomsday was upon us once again. Just another day for the Kane family, ladies and gentlemen.

Now, there are two crucial facts that you need to know about Lou Ellen, the cabin leader I was entrusted to: she was a complete nerd on anything magical, and she tended to turn people she didn't like into frogs. I managed to learn the maximum of info about these Olympians and their kids, ranging from what each god stood for to what the Aphrodite kids tended to wear on Wednesdays. Oh, and apparently, while Carter and I were facing a giant snake that ate sun gods for lunch, the Greeks were having their own doomsday problem to deal with. Lou Ellen didn't go over the details, but the basic parts that I needed to know, like the evil version of Mother Nature and the Seven demigods who managed to stop her, I got. The Hecate girl decided to also give me a mini-lecture on demigod magic, but honestly, I didn't remember a thing. The one spare part that I recall was a thing called "The Mist", which apparently blocked all the monsters and godly happenings from mortal eyes. Of course, I knew that mortals could not see deeper into the Duat than the surface layer, so magic was pretty much hidden from them, but giving that mysterious veil that separates their reality and ours a name...I wondered why no magician had come up with one.

After Lou Ellen's incredibly boring yet painfully educating rant, I decided that it was time of a short break. I headed toward the center of the camp, hoping to find someone I could talk to and maybe find out what to do. That was when I noticed the stares.

Sure, I'm pretty used to people staring at me [No comments from you, Carter!] But not is such a..._hostile _fashion. I didn't know if word of our arrival to this place got around so quickly, or if people just didn't _like _me at first glance, but whenever I passed somebody sword fighting or cleaning their armor or even just aimlessly roaming around, they would halt their work and just...stare. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're going to say; _oh, afraid of a little attention? Really, Sadie? _But I'm telling you, the way they looked at me was so...cold. As if I was a repulsive smell they couldn't get rid of. As if I didn't belong there. Which, granted, I didn't. Anyway, all I really wanted to do was get away from everyone. So I headed to the most remote part of the camp: the woods. Now, I don't want to state any _Harry Potter_ references this early into our story, since a certain someone practically beat the joke down to the ground, but I have to say that the woods were pretty much the American version of the Forbidden Forest. Form what I've heard from Lou Ellen, the place was teeming with monsters, spirits, crazy magic...So anyone would wonder why the bloody hell was Piper just randomly popping out to the bushes just then? She didn't look that suspicious, but the sight of her kind of started me for a moment. Her left hand was awkwardly fixing her now leaf and twig filled hair, while her left was holding something shiny that I couldn't quite identify. The half-blood spotted me just a few meters away, and hastily stuffed the shiny object in her coat pocket. "Oh, hi Sadie."

"Hi." I said, blinking slowly. "Where'd you come from?"

"Uh..." Piper looked over her shoulder at the shrub of bushes she had just climbed out of. "Nowhere really...How's your fist day of camp?" she grinned at me, and even though I knew she was trying to change the subject, I still wanted to answer.

"Fine, I guess." I suddenly had the urge to look at my boots. "Just fine."

Piper probably heard the sarcasm in that statement. "What's wrong?"

Alright, I know that in Brooklyn House I am hailed as the loudest person there, but even I don't just go spilling my feelings out to everyone I meet. Yet Piper seemed to somehow pull it all out of me. It was weird, because I knew there was magic in her voice, and that she was (consciously or not) using it. Yet, it didn't seem to be the reason why it was so easy talking to her. She was just that kind of person: someone who listens. So I told her about the stares. "I mean seriously, what is their _problem?_ They've never met me before, yet somehow they think that I'm the enemy! Come on, what did I ever do to them?"

I may have ranted like that for a long time. To me it seemed like hours. And through it all Piper just stood there, not saying a word, eyes wide. Then, when I had finally run out of breath, she went ahead and said: "Maybe it's the smell."

"..._What?_"

"No, no, I don't mean it like that!" Piper held her hands up, as if trying to stop me from attacking. "it's..."

"Oh, so now you don't like how I smell? Really? Well then, why don't you just..."

"The satyrs!" Piper cut me off again.

"Isn't that a genre?"

"No, I mean the half-human half-goat guys, you know, the ones near the big house?"

"Uh, no."

"Never mind." Piper shook her head. "Anyway, these guys could smell monsters and demigods, so we usually send them to help out with retrieving unclaimed half-bloods. They said that you and your brother smelled...different. Not mortals, obviously, but not like half-bloods either."

"So you're telling me that the reason for all that hate is...how I smell?"

Piper shrugged. "Well, its either that, or the long historical rivalry between Greece and Egypt. Maybe you guys coming here had woken up some ancient roots."

Troubling scenario, no doubt. I suddenly had a vision of Carter and me running from a mob of angry ancient Greeks with pitchforks and torches screaming "Die, Egyptian scum!"

Piper excused herself, saying that she needed to go do something or other, and disappeared back into the woods, leaving a dark, human-shaped hole in the bushes. For a second, I wanted to follow her, but right at that time, a figure practically crashed into me, sending both of us sprawling on the ground.

"Ow! Watch it! Seriously, can't you-" I was cut off abruptly as Carter grabbed me by the shoulders.

"We need to talk."

-ten minutes later-

"So Setne's at it again, huh?" I rubbed my temples tiredly, "And he's after this camp?"

Carter shook his head. "No, he's after the Romans."

I blinked. "What Romans?"

My brother groaned, burying his face in his hands. It took him ten more minutes to explain what Annabeth had told him earlier that day. I slumped onto the moist earth, feeling the grass between my fingers, and buried my face in my lap. "That's it, I'm done. _Another apocalypse_, seriously? Can't they just leave us alone for at least, I dunno, a couple of years? Or is the End of the World an _annual _thing now?"

"Sadie..." Carter gave me an exasperated look. I manage to calm down enough to talk rationally. [What do you mean I can't do that?]

"So what, do we tell the wheelchair guy or..."

"We have to save them."

"Wait, what? Why do we have to do it? It's not our problem!"

"Yes, it is. We're the ones who let Setne escape! So it's our responsibility to fix it! Or what, are you gonna just let innocents die because you're to lazy to give a damn?"

I blushed, looking away from my elder sibling's pointed gaze. "N-no, I didn't say that! Of course I'll-!"

"Besides," Carter's thoughtful look started to creep me out, "It's a way to earn their trust. Romans and Egyptians have a rivalry since the ancient times, but if we help them in the face of a threat..."

"They'll think we're good allies?"

"Not exactly. But they'll at least think before killing us on the spot."

"Lovely."

I'll skip a good chunk of what happened after that cheerful conversation. Basically, we all got to go to dinner. The dining pavilion had all these annoying rules about sitting with their cabins, but the man in the wheelchair (apparently dubbed Chiron) let us sit with him. Fortunately, the food was great. The Greeks had these magical plates and goblets that could conjurer up any food or drink you'd like, which suited me just fine. Unfortunately, we got to meet "Mr.D", a.k.a. the most irresponsible camp director _ever._ I wasn't that surprised when I found out that the guy was the god of wine, Dionysus. After all, he pretty much fit the typical pot-bellied couch potato standard, complete with a loud Hawaiian shirt. [Percy claims that I'll get turned into a dolphin for that "couch potato" comment. Whatever.] Moving on.

Carter took his time telling Chiron and Mr.D about his dream. The former's facial expression creased with worry, making him seem a few more centuries older, while the latter nonchalant sipped his Diet Pepsi, seeming to almost not care. "That is rather troubling." Chiron stated, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"No duh," I muttered under my breath, causing Carter to give me a sharp glare.

"We will have to announce this during tonight's campfire. A quest should be initiated to warn the Roman's of the upcoming threat. I'm sorry to trouble both of you, I know you were probably planning to go home the next morning, but,"

Carter held up a hand. "No need to apologize, really. It's actually kind of our fault, see..."

"The point my brother is trying to make is that we're willing to help." I managed to stop Carter from launching into another long, boring story. "It involves Egypt, too, after all."

Chiron smiled one of his "wise old man" smiles that didn't quite fit with his middle-aged appearance. "I am very thankful to hear that."

"Bah." was the only input the god of wine made.

After dinner, the whole camp assembled in the amphitheater, around a giant bonfire that describing it without an understatement would've been impossible. These Greeks sure like fire, I concluded. As the rest of the campers filled the seating space, which pretty much consisted of a bunch of logs, arranged my cabins, my brother and I got to stand next to the red-haired girl Rachel right up close with the open flame (Yay!).

"How long do we have to stand here?" I asked, ignoring the 'don't complain!' look Carter sent me.

Rachel shrugged, "Probably until Chiron gets here. Then he can probably explain every- oh, there he is!"

I turned around, and my jaw hit the floor. The creature before me was _not _Chiron. Or more precisely, only half of him was. From the waist up he was a middle-aged dark-haired guy in an orange camp T-shirt. From a waist _down, _however, he was a horse. A pure white stallion with the tail and everything. You may think compared to all the freaky stuff I've faced, I wouldn't blink twice at the friendly-looking horse-man. It's just, seeing the guy in as a cripple and then see him acquire not _two, _but _four _extra appendages was a bit jarring, if anything.

"Centaur," I heard my sibling's shaky voice, "He's a centaur."

"Oi!" Rachel elbowed him. "Don't stare, it's rude!"

"Ha-uh? Right, um hi." Carter waved awkwardly at the man (or, er, _centaur_), which made me snap out of my stupor.

"Hey. I guess you don't need that wheelchair after all." I joked, trying to get rid of my left-over shock.

Chiron smiled, like he was used to the reactions we had. He turned toward the campers, addressing them all in some kind of intro speech, basically confirming our Egyptian-ness to them. I didn't bother to listen to it that much, honestly, feeling much more concerned for my eyebrows that were slowly being roasted by the open flame.

Half way through the explanation, Carter stepped in and told us about his dream with Setne. A lot of the campers looked confused, and I heard a "Setne who?" there somewhere. I was tempted to do a Doctor Who reference, but comparing Uncle Vinnie to such an amazing character would have been insulting. So I just let brother dear handle everything and stared at the withering tongues of the campfire.

The bright orange flame seemed to be filled with haunting silhouettes, dancing on the burning logs and slowly devouring them. The fire seemed to beckon me. I could almost swear I saw one of the shapes crooking their finger at me. I remembered the last line of the prophecy, the one about the fire, and felt shivers crawl down my spine. For some reason I was suddenly feeling nauseous.

"Sadie, Sadie! SADIE!" I jerked my head towards the voice, which belonged to a certain annoying brother of mine.

"Eh? Huh?" It took me a few seconds to snap out of my trance.

"You spaced out there for a second. You okay?" Carter gave me one of his "I Am Concerned" looks, his eye-brows raised sky-high, "We were just talking about sending a group across to the Roman camp. You know, to warn them."

"Right, sorry." I frowned. There was a presence there, in the flames, watching my every move. I wish I could say that I was just paranoid, but frankly, Carter's the paranoid one, and besides, the presence was too real to be just my imagination. For some reason, I remembered those weird sparkles that we picked up after the rat monster. "Carter, do you still have that fairy dust with you?"

Carter stared at me blankly. "What fairy du- oh, you mean the stuff from the Icheumon?"

"Can I see it?"

Carter took out the vile from his pocket. Chiron the Centaur and the rest of camp watched us silently, with a curious air to them. I took the vile from my brother want un-corked it. The chemical smell it gave off kind of reminded me of those old-timey war ships from the eighteen century, the ones with all the cannons and old-fashioned guns. [Don't ask me how we ended up on one of those. It's a long story.]

"Huh," Carter remarked. "It kind of looks like gun powder. Except more shiny."

I looked at the burning inferno in front of me, and a thought came to mind, one of those crazy, non-essential thoughts that my logical brain rebelled against. _Don't do it, _it said, _If you want to keep your eyebrows intact, then don't do it." _Unfortunately, that part of my mind was never a dominating one.

Carter, on the other hand, noticed as my gaze lingered from the bottle and onto the fire, and back on the bottle. "Sadie," he started, "Don't. Are you cra-"

I poured the contents into the fire. The flames erupted into a burning inferno that rose up high enough to lick the top branches of a near-by pine tree, and surrounded me with its tongues of heat. Carter scrambled away from the flames, Chiron doing much the same. I heard a hundred horrified gasps and the last thing I saw was my brother's panicked face before the roaring force blocked everything out of my vision.

I expected to be screaming in pain as the flames consumed my burning body. That never happened. I could feel the extreme heat of the fire, but it was strangely absent of pain. The fire danced around me, shape-shifting into what looked like different creatures, until it settled for a giant serpent. As I watched the creature's elongated body coin around me, my first thought was _Apophis. _Yet I realized that this was a completely different entity altogether. It was more ancient that the House of Life, more ancient than the Gods, and, heck, even more ancient that the Chaos Snake himself. It was terrifying, to say the least, staring into this being's reptile eyes, (oh, and did I mention it was made out of _fire_), observing me, as if to see if I was good enough.

It seemed like our staring contest lasted forever. Finally, the snake's head slowly stretched towards me. I flinched, raising my arms to try to shield myself. The thing focused on my right hand, which was outstretched as if to fend off the monster. Then it growled, and faster than lightning rushed towards me. I gave a cry of surprise, and pain as I felt my right hand ignite.

It felt like all the heat around me was somehow focused on my right palm. The nerves under my skin screeched in pain as the inferno slowly devoured my flesh. It wasn't like any pain I had experienced before. I desperately wanted it to stop, to just fry my nerve endings so that they wont feel anything anymore. It was too much, I felt like I was about to burst.

Then, suddenly, it all stopped, and darkness enveloped my vision, and I welcomed blissful unconsciousness.

**Disclaimer: Yeah, not mine. Wish it was, though.**

**So, yeah. **

**You probably want to kill me for not updating for three months, dontcha? Yeah...**

**So, hope you enjoyed that...experience. **

**By the way, an Anonymous commented that he/she hates this story because Leo is dead. Okay, first off: if you hate it, the why bother? And second: Leo is listen in the main character section FOR A REASON. I WOULDN'T PUT HIM THERE IF HE WOULD BE DEAD. Ahem. Just saying. I wouldn't kill off my favorite HOO character that early into the story. Chill, McFill.**

**Hopefully, I can start updating sooner once summer vacation rolls in (for me it'll be in two weeks). See ya! **

**PS: May be wondering what that title's about now. Any lucky guesses? Come on, place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, place your bets!**


	6. Chapter 6: My Tattoo Gives Us Directions

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**Chapter 6: My Tattoo Gives Us Directions**

I woke up with a pounding headache and an aching arm. After I cracked my eyes open, a red-wood ceiling greeted my vision. I wondered what that ceiling was doing in my room, until I remembered that I wasn't in my room anymore. Glancing around, I spotted Carter sleeping in a chair next to the bed I was on, his upper body plastered on said bed, drooling peacefully in his sleep. I used my left hand (to one that didn't feel like it was stuck in an oven) to poke him on the nose. Carter mumbled something about Polar bears and evil triangles [Geez, brother dear, what we you dreaming about, anyway?] and slowly opened one eye.

"Hello," I greeted, "back in the land of the living, huh?"

Carter's eyes shot open, and with a startled cry he shot up from my bed, almost falling off the chair his butt was occupying. "Huh, _Sadie?_" Then, as fast as Muffin on bath days, he jumped onto the bed and tackled me in a hug. "Oh my gods, Sadie, you're alive."

"Yep," I chuckled awkwardly with Carter's arms still around my shoulders, "sorry to disappoint you, bro."

"_Gods, _Sadie, I thought you were _gone. _I saw you get torched, I thought you burned to death! I though I was going to see the charred body of my little sister and I-"

"-Should probably avoid chocking my patient." a dry voice cut in stiffly. Both of us looked up to see a blond teenager Carter's age at the door, his arms folded in front of his chest. My first thought was _my, he's gorgeous, _and my second one was _A lot skinnier than Walt, though._ What can I say, my mind was a bit confused at the time. And did I mention my arm hurt? Because it did.

When I said that Jason looked like a beach-blond wannabe, I have not yet met Will Solace. If Jason was only cos-playing one, then Will was the real deal. Honestly, I did not get how someone that looked so _perfect _(a bit too perfect, though) exist in real like. _Dream Boy High _maybe, but not here, in front of my own eyes. Carter says I'm getting off topic [as if you didn't spend a good chunk of your time describing how hot Piper was].

Anyway, Carter quickly let go of me and awkwardly climbed off the bed. Embarrassed, he mumbled something about finding Chiron and hurried out the door. I watched him leave, and then, when he was out of sight, turned to face a blond boy, who quickly introduced himself, coming closer to the side of my bed. Will out the back of his hand to my forehead, apparently feeling my temperature.

"The fever's gone down finally." he mumbled to himself, but currently, I felt quite the opposite. In fact, I felt my insides slowly melt inside of me. _Think about Walt, _I thought, _besides, he's __probably__ got, like, ten girlfriends already. I don't need any more malicious Aphrodite kids on my tail. _

To distract myself, I asked "So, what exactly happened last night?"

Will looked at me for a long time, and it was a little unnerving. "Well, I didn't get to see it in detail," he began, "but it looked like you got completely consumed by the campfire. Everyone was panicking, they thought you were dead." He took a deep breath, "After the flames cleared, you were lying on the ground. So I and a couple of other Apollo kids rushed in to see if you were still alive. I mean, we expected a charred corpse, but seeing as how that didn't happen...we had to practically pry your brother off of you."

"Oh." I said in a small voice. I mean, what else could I say? I probably caused a camp-wide panic with my fire show, and for once did not feel any satisfaction because of that. Instead, I looked at my hand, silently wondering if there was nothing but charred bone underneath the bandage. Then again, maybe it wasn't that bad. Hey, I had to have nerve endings there to actually feel the pain, right? Or maybe it was phantom pains, who knows. Anyway, it was really unnerving. [Ha! Unnerving. Have to remember that one.]

I remembered the giant serpent that was not Apophis and wondered what was the point of maiming my hand and then just disappearing. I reached for the bandage with my left hand.

"Sadie, Sadie!" a tan, lanky hand gripped my good wrist, prying it off the other one. "Sadie, stop."

I suddenly realized that the room was spinning, and my breath was coming out fast and short, and my whole body was trembling.

"Here." Will carefully handed me a glass of water and two pills. "Drink".

I took the glass, annoyed that the demigod was still holding onto it like he feared that I would drop it. I pulled the glass towards me. "I can drink." I snapped at him, gulping down the two tablets. Will raised his palms to his chest in a calming gesture. I felt guilty for my cold retort. He was trying to help after all.

"Wait," I frowned, realizing that I swallowed some unknown pills without a second thought, "I thought you Greeks used Nectar or whatever to heal yourselves."

Will shrugged. "I honestly didn't know what effect it would have on you. Regular mortals can burn out because of it. Plus, the stuff gives you more energy. You kind of needed the opposite."

"Nectar works fine on me." I replied. "Annabeth gave it to me before." I explained after.

"Will frowned, studying me intently. "So you're not half-god or anything, right?"

The answer was a bit complicated, and a didn't feel like explaining it. "Not really, no." I had a sudden urge to ask him something. "So who's your godly parent or whatever?"

"Apollo."

"So the music god?"

"He's god of a lot of things, not just music. Trust me, you do not what to hear me sing."

"I'm sure I don't." I smirked, already warming up to this guy.

"Anyway," the blond continued with his explanation, "He's also the god of the oracle, archery, the muses, art, literature, the sun, and medicine. You can probably tell I prefer the last category."

"So I'm guessing you're the cabin leader then."

Will grinned, and I wondered if he fell into the "sun" category as well. "You got it. I'm the lead healer of this place."

"So you're a nurse."

He made a face. "Doctor, Sadie. I'm a doctor." I restrained myself from making a Doctor Who reference.

He got up from the bed, making his way toward the door. "Well, I'm off. Gonna tell everybody you're not dead. And _you,_ he pointed at me as I tossed my blanket aside, "Are staying _here. _And _resting. _Doctor's orders." he added, as I made a sound of protest. Then he was out, the wooden door slamming shut behind him.

I huffed, leaning back against the fluffy pillows. I was so frustrated and confused, I didn't even try to sneak out. This was partly due to my headache and partly due to me feeling like I was going to fall over the moment I would try to stand up. So instead, I looked at my bandaged right arm, interestingly enough the only wound I had sported. I thought about last night's escapade. Why would that weird powdery stuff that the monster shredded end up summoning a giant snake? And why did I summon it in the first place? It was like something was telling me to do it, a little voice in my head that caused me to bring out the fireworks. I shivered. Was it that serpent that told me to do it? Having something influence my thoughts like that was creepy, but not unfamiliar. The same thing happened when I first hosted-

No. No no no no no. This, this thing I saw, was it-? Then what did it do to my hand? Why would it give the effort to show up and maim _just _my right arm? Fingers shaking, I slowly peeled back the bandage on my hand, dread pooling at the bottom of my stomach in tight knots. Then I saw it. Practically panicking, I ripped off the rest of the bandage wrapped around my appendage, and stared at my arm in horror.

It was a tattoo.

Starting from my palm was a serpent head, the neck it was attached to curled around my wrist and widened out into a body at it progressed up my arm. Then, when it reached my shoulder, it curved back down, so that its tail was right at the back of my hand. It kind of looked like the head was reaching around my palm, trying to bite the tail. Despite myself, I had to admit: the snake guy was a great tattoo artist.

I slowly got up from the bed, my whole body shaking. It looked as if that creature (god? Demon?) marked me, branded me so that everyone knew that I was his. Okay, where did that thought come from. I was a bit freaked out where all this crazy stuff in my mind was coming from.

I had to talk to someone. Carter! Of course! Carter would know what to do! Or not. Actually, he would probably be even more freaked out and panicky than I was. No, I needed someone with a more stable mind. Just then, I silent pleas were answered.

The door to the infirmary (that's where I guessed I was) creaked open, and Annabeth carefully walked it. Her eyes landed on my panicked ones. "Sadie, what-?" I didn't let her finish, jumping off the bed and wrapping my arms around her in a desperate hug. She awkwardly hugged back. "Sadie, what's wrong?"

I showed her my arm.

I don't know how long I spent recalling everything from last night to Annabeth, and when Will finally walked back in, we were busy casting aside theories.

"Maybe you're hosting it?"

"Great. I've got a pyromaniac snake stuck in my head. Just what I wanted." I grumbled.

Annabeth sighed. "We should tell Chiron about this. He would know what that was for sure." She took my arm and inspected it. "But the way its drawn, it looks like the Ouroboros."

I blinked at her. "The what-now?"

"The Ouroboros," she repeated, as if saying it again could clear up the confusion. It didn't. "It's a sort of symbol. It shows up quite often in both Greek and Egyptian culture, and stands for fertility and re-birth."

"So I got a tattoo from the god of reincarnation?"

"It- he's not a god, I don't think. It's more like a symbol or a mark-."

"Ahem."

The two of us jumped from the sudden interruption to look back at Will, who stood I the door way with his arms crossed over his chest. "Sorry to interrupt, but Chiron wants to see you, Annabeth."

Annabeth got up from the bed, and I made a move to go after her, only to have Will send me a glare. "Not you. You're still resting. Seriously, sometimes I feel like you're worse than De Angelo."

The daughter of Athena snorted. "Oh, I'm sure he'd be glad to flirt with you again." Will's cheeks turned a nice dark shade of crimson.

As she left, the self-proclaimed "doctor" noticed my discarded bandages and my bare right arm. "Seriously, did you have to?" he gestured at the linen on the floor.

"Yes." I dead-panned, showing him my new tattoo. "Look, I'm fine. I just need to talk to Chiron. Like now. I don't know what this thing on my arm is, and he's probably the only one with answers and I promise I wont fall over when I get up and-"

"Alright! Fine!" Will interrupted my hurried string of words. "Do what you need to, just- take it easy. Guess who it will be to blame if you faint."

I stuck my tongue out at him, and got up from the bed. "I don't _faint._"

Will just rolled his eyes, but said nothing. I guess he was just too exasperated with me by then. I get that reaction a lot.

There was another reason for me wanting to leave so badly. There was a buzz in my chest, a feeling I got that made it impossible for me to lay down and rest. I have the silent urge to get up, walk out the door, then run around in circles until that infinite amount of energy left me. And this wasn't one of my typical hyperactive urges to go out and _do something. _This felt like I hadn't left the room for weeks while on five shots of coffee and a pound of Smile Dip. It wasn't just to get out, my body was trying to go somewhere. I didn't know where yet, but I was very tempted to find out.

The two of us left for the Big House, which wasn't that big in the first place, but compared to all the cabins, I guess I could let it go for now. Will watched me like a hawk, as if I could kneel over dead any second. I can't really blame the poor bloke, though. After all, he did see me almost get fried by a giant fiery snake of doom the other day. Come to think of it, the other campers seemed to give me shocked looks wherever I went. I should've expected that too. It's not everyday that you see a British girl ignite during their campfires. Then some started paying more attention to my new body mark rather than my face, and I started to feel rather self-conscious. I suddenly wished that I still kept those bandages, even if it was only to keep away from prying eyes. I tugged at the sleeve of my T-shirt, my bright red jacket apparently missing in action (still gotta ask Will about that), and tried to look like I didn't care, a skill I was well practiced in.

When I entered the bright red barn, everyone fell silent, even though it looked like they were in the middle of a heated debate. Annabeth sat next to Chiron (who was now back in his fake wheel chair), and seemed have been pleading to him about something. Carter, who sat on the couch opposite of the two, looked as disagreeable as I am to waking up at seven on a Saturday. Across the room, Mr.D was playing poker with a couple of goat-people [Carter here. Those are satyrs, Sadie]. He didn't seem to listen of care about the conversation going on at all.

When I walked in, all fell silent and stared at me. "Uh, hi, guys." I waved awkwardly. "Lovely day we're having, isn't it?"

Carter jumped up from the couch and tackled me into another hug. I patted his back awkwardly. "Brother dear, I'm pretty sure that you already did this." I whispered in his ear. "Please let go."

"Sadie, you can't go." Okay, what?

"Carter, I'm not going anywhere. Now can I sit down?"

My brother let go of me, and the two of us sat down on the couch. Mr. D resumed his game.

"Sadie," I turned to the wise-looking centaur as he spoke, "I'm afraid we have a lot to talk about."

"Great!" I said. "I have a couple of questions: first off, why do I have a tattoo? Second: who gave me that tattoo? Third: why did the fairy dust explode and summon a giant demon snake from the depths of hell? Fourth-"

Chiron held up a hand, "Slow down, Sadie. I'm sure all of your questions will be answered in due time." He looked at Annabeth, as if she could explain all this madness better than he can.

She cleared her throat. "Well, Sadie, Chiron and I believe that what you summoned back there was..." she took a dramatic breath, "The Ouroboros."

"The thing you mentioned before."

Carter took out a well worn book from his magician's bag and handed it to me. "It's from the Athena Cabin's library." he explained.

I looked at the title. Written I gold letters was _Demons and Deities of Unknown Origin, Vol I. _I flipped it open to a random page. On it seemed to be a funky looking triangle in a top hat. "Um, here." Carter took the book the book from my hands, flipping to the right page, leaving me wondering why something that I would doodle on my trigonometry homework be included in there. My brother handed he the book back. At the top of the page was the drawing with a snake trying to bite its own tail. "It's...my tattoo." I realized, looking at the figure. I scanned the text on the bottom of it. "It's all in Greek." I said, annoyed.

"You recognize it?" Annabeth sounded surprised at that.

I shrugged. "It was on that Rosetta Stone that my dad- um-" I trailed off, not wanting to mention my father blowing up an old and ancient relic.

The daughter of Athena took the book from me, "Here, it says: '_the Ouroboros is a widely known sign that seemed to show up often in several ancient cultures, including Greek, Roman, and Egyptian.'_" she gave Carter and me a pointed look. "'_While it is still unknown if it is just a symbol or an actual demon, it is known to harness incredible power over the objects it symbolizes, especially rebirth and rejuvenation.'_"

"Like I said before, am I being haunted by the guy that runs reincarnation?"

Annabeth let out a small smile. "I'm not sure. I don't think the author of this book was sure either."

"So with me having this tattoo...Does it say anything about creepy body art?" I asked.

Annabeth looked back at the pages. "I can't see any-Wait, there!" She pointed excitedly at a section of the text, "It says, '_Whoever bears the sign of the Ouroboros will be led to the Hiding Place,' _Wow, they couldn't have been more cryptic, '_And will forever be bound to it.'_"

She glanced at Chiron. The centaur sighed, looking at me with tired eyes that were way older than his outward appearance. "Sadie, the Ouroboros has claimed you."

"Wow, wait, _what?"_ Carter stood up abruptly, and I squinted at him, trying to ignore my throbbing head. The need to get out of here was getting stronger, and I began to understand why I had it in the first place. "What do you mean, _claimed her_? What does that thing want with Sadie? We never agreed to this!"

It was funny, seeing Carter speak for both of us without asking my opinion. True, my thoughts were very similar to his at the time, but still. I noticed how often he was talking like a grown up would talk about his child. Like I had no opinion of my own, or that it didn't matter. Perhaps I was reading between the lines too much. Carter was just worrying about me, and I should respect that. And I did. But here, in this very situation, Carter knew even less than I did. At least I was aware of what everyone was implying. So I stood up too, turning to Chiron. "Tell me what I have to do."

"Wait. What?" Carter looked at me and blinked.

"This _mark _on my arm – it's leading me somewhere, isn't it?" I looked directly at Chiron. "And I have to follow it, or else I'll die, right?"

"You won't _die, _Sadie. Honestly, I don't even know how this ancient being works." Chiron's speech and expression held something I couldn't decipher. "I have seen this mark before. I has been around for centuries, but no one knows of its origin.

"That dust didn't belong to that creature you fought. Perhaps the rat was a byproduct of an experiment of someone not knowing the true purpose of the substance. Nevertheless, you found that purpose." He finished.

"And now I have a black burn mark on my arm."

"Uh, can I say something?" Will, who was silent for so long that I forgot he was even there, piped up from the doorway. "If someone tried to figure that exploding stuff out, aren't they after whatever Sadie has to find?"

"By the way, I would be thankful for any information on _what exactly I'm looking for, if you please._" I pointed out.

"Sadie," Annabeth looked up from her intense reading of the same page over and over, "I think what you're looking for _is _the Ouroboros."

Everyone stared at her. "What?" she asked, "Think about it. The Mark of Athena led me to my mother's statue, didn't it? Maybe it's the same thing here."

"Oh," I said, "So I have to find a giant statue of a snake chasing its own tail. Great!"

"I don't know what awaits you at the end, Sadie, or the person that is hunting the Ouroboros, for that matter. Though I have a hunch on who it might be." Chiron said.

Carter and I looked at each other, and we had one of those moments where both of us were thinking of the same thing. "Sente!" we both cried out.

Chiron nodded. "And if he's as bad as you portrayed him to be, then it is mandatory that we get to the Ouroboros before he does."

I nodded. "So, I get to lead a quest then?"

"Yeah. You get to pick two demigods to go on a quest with you." Annabeth said. "That's usually how it works."

"Alright, then I pick Jason and Piper." Okay, maybe my decision was a bit rushed. 'Sadie, why didn't you pick Annabeth?' Well, I was going to, actually. But then I remembered how Jason had saved me from that rat monster. And I remembered how friendly and open Piper was to me. Well, mostly open. That mysterious appearance from the bushes was a bit suspicious, but everyone has secrets.

Anyway, I just felt like having those two tag along with me was _right. _And anyone who knew me was aware that I trusted my gut a lot more often than I trusted my brain [No, Carter, I did not just call myself stupid. Shut up.]

Everyone stared at me in surprise. Carter looked a bit offended that I didn't choose him. He looked like he was about to say something, but his mouth stayed closed. So I said something instead: "Someone has to warn the Roman camp about the upcoming attack. That should probably be you, brother dear."

The poor boy looked like he was about to argue. Annabeth cut him off. "I'll go, too. Reyna and I are on good terms, so she'll be willing to listen."

"See?" I grinned at my brother. "Everything works out."

Carter sighed. "Alright. If you say so."

"We'll probably need to announce the quests and gather the supplies-"

"Actually," Chiron cut off Annabeth. "I think it's in our best interest that Sadie leaves immediately. We are on a tight schedule, after all." He sounded calm and together, but even I could tell that the centaur was on edge.

I grinned, trying to dissipate the tense atmosphere. "Alright then, it's settled!"

…

When I found Piper and Jason in the arena, they seemed ecstatic that I wasn't dead. Piper hugged me, asking if I was alright. Her knife was still in her hand, which made me hoped that I wasn't going to get accidentally stabbed in the back. That'd be disappointing, considering that I survived burning alive last night. Jason patted me on the back affectionately (though a bit awkwardly). I've only known these two for a day and a half, but they already acted like I was one of their best friends.

When I told them about the quest, they grew tense. "Are you sure you want us for this?" Piper asked, "I mean, your brother-"

"My brother has more important things to worry about. Besides, what could be better than the power couple of this camp? So, do you accept?"

"Actually, the power couple would be Annabeth and Percy." Jason piped up. "Percabeth practically rules this camp."

Piper smiled. "If you want us to help you save the world, then alright, we accept." She glanced at Jason, who nodded. She paused. "Question is, where are we going? And how do we get there?"

As I smirked at the two of them, my new tattoo burned underneath the binding. "Leave that to me."

…

Anyone else who would have been standing at the edge of camp next to the giant pine tree and the sleeping dragon would have noticed a long black limousine pull up right in front of them. For those of you who don't know: this limo belongs to Bes, the dwarf god. You may be a bit puzzled why a god of vertically challenged people owned a car, much less one as fancy as that one. Well, patient audience, your guess is as good as mine. I never did find out how Bes got a hold of it, but I do know that this saved both mine and Carter's lives more than once, and that was good enough for me.

Bes jumped out of the driver's seat, eyeing Jason and Piper like they were time bombs that are about explode. Fortunately, he was fully clothed (long story). Unfortunately, his clothes did nothing to improve his appearance. The loud Hawaiian shirt was obnoxious enough that only Mr.D would approve. The knee-length shorts exposed his overly hairy legs, and his (truly horrifying) toes were sporting bright green sandals.

"Wow, where did you come form? The Bahamas?" I joked.

"Jamaica, actually." he pointed at Piper and Jason. "Who are those two Greeks?"

"Uh, I'm Roman, actually." Jason, put in.

That was probably the wrong thing to say. The dwarf scowled even more. I was afraid that he might use his "scary face", and trust me, nobody wanted to see that. "That's even worse." he grumbled.

We got in awkwardly, Jason actually looking a bit terrified of our short driver. I, of course, called shotgun. "Who is that?" Piper whispered to me.

"Bes, the god of dwarfs. He's an old friend of ours. Don't worry," I eyed Jason's pained expression. "He only _looks _like he could kill you. He's actually a cinnamon roll on the inside." [Yes, I am aware that the joke was terrible, Carter.]

"So, mind telling me what's going on?" Bes grumbled next to me. I filled him in on the whole ordeal. When I finished, the dwarf actually looked like he was gonna stop the car and yell at me for being stupid. Instead, he kept driving, scolding me in the process. "Kid, when you see a fiery monstrocity, you don't pet it. You run."

"I'm not really the running type."

"So!" Piper clapped her hands loudly. "Where are we going?"

"Uh." I looked at the snake tattoo, hoping it would turn into a GPS of some sort and tell us where we need to go. "Not sure." Suppenly, there was a strange tug on my brain, and I heard _right. _

Let me make this clear. I am not knew to hearing voices in my head. The problem was that this wasn't a voice. It was a thought. A concept, that suddenly sprung in my brain out of nowhere. I just _knew, _and that made me shudder more than anything.

"Right." I said weakly. "Turn right."

Bes gave me a stare, but did as I said, turning at the nearest fork on the graveled road. Our quest had begun.

* * *

**So! I'm pretty sure it's been half a year since I updated. Typical, really. Anyway, here's another huge chapter to repay that cliffhanger last chapter. Next we'll have Cater and Percabeth taking off to New Rome, who may or may not be joined by someone we all know (evil laughter). Stay tuned! **

**In the meantime, did anybody read Magnus Chase yet? I just finished it, and let me tell you, UNCLE RICK STRIKES AGAIN. I may have suffered an obsession with a certain deaf elf and a certain sarcastic Valkyrie. They're great. **


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